1. Field of the Invention
The field of art to which this invention pertains is heat exchange utilizing an intermediate fluent material for receiving and discharging heat based on a condensing and evaporating system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been proposed to utilize a heat pipe system to provide heating and cooling to residential buildings and other similar structures. For example, the use of heat pipes in conjunction with furnace, hot water, and fireplace systems has been suggested (Heat Pipe Theory And Practice, by S. W. Chi, p. 219). It has also been proposed to use the relatively constant temperature of the earth as a source of heating and cooling with various heat pipe systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,012 discloses a heat pump-heat pipe system utilizing the earth as the heat source and heat sink with heat pipes buried in a hole and surrounded by water-soaked absorbent polymer particles; U.S. Pat. No. 2,749,724 utilizes a heat pump and coil arrangement to take advantage of the earth's temperature constant to heat a residential dwelling; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,563,304 discloses a heat exchange system for providing refrigeration to a building structure where part of the heat exchange system may be buried in the ground.
However, what has been lacking in the prior art is an efficient method of utilizing the stored heat in the earth or other heat source/heat sink in a heat exchange system which is both efficient and yet relatively simple in structure to make its use economically feasible.